Seems like one of the least memorable Olympias so far...

[Glenn Gould]

Poor lighting
Broken links for the webcast
no high resolution photo thread of the contest
almost no fan threads! ( Everybody is on ******** apparently? )
disappointing comeback for Levrone
Kai out again
Ramy off for the first time ever
no HD YouTubes
no surprises so far

[KevinSorbo]

Ramy is smaller than his previous self but conditioning is good, and hes still bigger than the rest of the lineup.

I thought Bonac and Nathan De Asha were great surprises. Not out of nowhere or anything, but impressive

[batspoof]

On the plus side, our eyes have been spared from the troll branch warren.

[Jaixs]

Overall quality of bodybuilders was better than it's been in a long time. Pretty much no one was off.

[blindsideflank]

Overall quality of bodybuilders was better than it's been in a long time. Pretty much no one was off.

This. Maybe the sport is peaking, but everyone is very comparable. Gone are the days of a Tom platz among a bunch of small legged guys etc.

Everyone has been bringing the size for years, and balance(proportion)/symmetry isn't as stressed. I think the last factor that hasn't been getting nailed by everyone is conditioning but almost everyone has been bringing it now.

There will forever be that last minute timing to carb up and get vascular but it's kind of boring not having guys that are the biggest and unconditioned or comparing two guys that are lacking different body parts.

Make sense?

[warbird00]

Ramy first time being off? Lolwat. This is the first time I can remember him coming in conditioned...

[Penile_Dementia]

Ramy is conditioned and big but he's lost enough size that he's no longer dominating the other competitors in thickness. He's taller and has wider shoulders, but Bonac is looking to be more heavily muscled in some shots. Ramy doesn't have the wow factor in comparisons that he did have.

Phil is going to have absolutely no trouble. No 1 is a foregone conclusion and he's not being pushed, unless something changes dramatically in the finals.

Bonac and Winklaar and Lockett are the highlights for me.

[littlearm]

I don't think we should judge the overall quality of the Olympia from your personal experience: if there aren't many threads on bb.com, that's our fault - not the Olympia's. And there are TONS of discussions on musculardevelopment.com. Every year people complain about the stream; mine was stable for 3 hours. And if there aren't HD YouTube vids to watch? Well, there's a bit of a sense of entitlement there.

But with regards to the contest itself, I do agree - kind of boring. There are no good rivalries, no shockers of someone coming out of nowhere to make a run for it.

[balls2wall]

Overall quality of bodybuilders was better than it's been in a long time. Pretty much no one was off.

Yup. Was very exciting throughout the entire prejudging. Granted, camera angles where sh|t.

And OP, nobody is stopping you from making threads. Lead by example, instead of complaining.

[GearHound]

Are we watching the same olympia? Ramy looks amazing

[Penile_Dementia]

Are we watching the same olympia? Ramy looks amazing

Ramy looks good, and is still the biggest guy there, but the dominating mass and thickness isn't there. He's not popping in the lineups like he did at past shows.

[exbuffstuff]

The backdrop sucked.

They should have dropped a grey screen behind the guys and gals so the lights coming off the Olympia sign did not wash everyone out or have them blend into the black behind the Olympia.

[SPARTANUP]

^^ so much this, just a neutral background so we can correctly judge the competitors frames, not having wash outs or missing bodyparts due to contrasting backgrounds.

[littlearm]

I understand the backdrop. It's a big branding opportunity - whenever pictures are published from the show, people will instantly be able to tell it's the Olympia. Although a neutral background is ideal for analyzing physiques, at some point the business side is just going to win out.

I have not been to the Olympia in person in a couple years, but part of the excitement of attending the contest is seeing the elaborate staging. It makes the event more of a spectacle. And video will always flatten things a lot - the background is going to be more of a distraction for home viewers than it will be for the judges.

[gomez26]

crappy camerawork, distracting backgrounds etc are all tools the ifbb use to make it harder for viewers to accurately compare to get away with screwing certain competitors down a few placings or gifting others up a few placing due to politics while making it less obvious to untrained eyes. most viewers will not be able to tell the difference, it then becomes fodder for debate for the future which has the additional benefit of keeping the boards buzzing for longer due to controversy (more traffic).